The Sarracenia from last week resulted in rather positive comments. I’ve tried doing similar things using waste canvas, but have been less than happy with pulling out all the annoying little threads and the results have been not so great. This time I used a soluble canvas from DMC and it worked great. So here’s how I did it:

Supplies for sarracenia skirt, except for the hoop, which I forgot to put in the photo.

1. Get a gridded embroidery motif (i.e., something like cross stitch or a needlepoint pattern). Get a thing to sew the motif on, called a ground. Your ground should be able to hold the embroidery and handle really hot water, so don’t chose an angora sweater. The knit will unravel from the embroidery and the sweater will shrink when you pour hot water on it.

Cool. Found the hoop.

2. Iron your ground very well.

2. Whip stitch a piece of soluble canvas onto the ground. Be careful to line everything line up nice and flat. Wrinkles = bad.

Stinkpot, Sternotherus odorous, on a log, entertaining me while I stitch. Always bring your binos and your camera when outside.

3. Embroider your pattern. Using a hoop keeps multiple layers lined up properly. Try and make the back as neat as possible since it will (hopefully) see some use.

4. Soak the finished embroidery in the bowl using soap and water, as hot as you can stand to put your hand in. It doesn’t have to be boiling, just really really hot. The soluble canvas will soluble itself away.

5. Ironing again is probably a good idea at this point.

6. Go outside. Bask in praise. Send me a photo.

The only complaint I’ve got with the water soluble canvas is that it is only available in 14 point, and I haven’t used such big stitches in AGES. Blech.